The Legend of the Devil
Ch. 45 - Preliminary Round I: Individual Duel IV
Xian Shen stood firmly before Xue Zhan with one hand holding a sword, the swordsmanship he had learned in the Eternal Valley would be his decisive victory this time around. Xian Shen managed to excel, amassing thirty points at the moment and remaining dissatisfied. He wanted to collect more points as it would affect the second preliminary round later.
While Xue Zhan had seen Xian Shen's fighting style since the beginning of the fight. It could be said that he had one advantage, his ability in swordsmanship was quite outstanding from the other aspects. The movement is rigid but also full of calculations. Xue Zhan had to be careful with the full-strength straight attack he made all of a sudden, twice the fight against the other participants, Xian Shen managed to win just by using the same stance.
"Prepare!" Tang Quan as usual shouted in a high tone echoed throughout the room, one hand raised parallel to the head, then came the cry that followed the hand downward movement.
"The fourth round begins!"
Xue Zhan was on standby, seeing Xian Shen without any cue instantly draw the sword right after the fight started. His eyes opened, then an attack entered from the front. Xue Zhan held him back, his legs dragged back a few meters.
Xian Shen pulled back the weapon and released a slash from the side, slanting across towards Xue Zhan's waist. Xue Zhan did not stay still, he dodged to take a distance for two seconds, trying to reverse with a streak of slashes.
When he saw his enemy now Xue Zhan still remembered how his practice with Zhao Xuyang was. The way the man put pressure in every movement that made him intimidated and dragged the flow of the fight so that he often lost duels. Xue Zhan did not want to follow the tempo his opponent had created, it meant that he had to make a huge attack to shake the enemy's defensive wall.
The fight still continued, but it seemed that Xian Shen remained unmoved. He fended off the dozens of sword moves that came perfectly without a crack, until in the next second Xue Zhan gasped as the attacks that had been swung out unexpectedly.
A hard lunge smashed into his stomach, making Xue Zhan bounce. He jumped up, stabilized his balance, his mouth spewing out quite a lot of blood.
While before him Xian Shen was still in the same position as the sword extended forward. He only smashed into Xue Zhan's stomach with the handle of a sword. But with full force, the attack was quite painful.
Xian Shen had quite sharp eyes, was able to see the battle situation he was in and find the best time when the enemy was off guard to launch an attack.
The remaining time was half again, if Xue Zhan lost Xian Shen would still get five points for successfully hitting it. Xue Zhan's only chance of earning points was to defeat Xian Shen decisively.
Xian Shen did not look like he wanted to stall for longer and directly advanced boldly, attacking Xue Zhan from the front. However, he did not move. The young man did not open a gap, as the fight resumed Xian Shen unleashed more than three slashes that were hard to avoid.
Xue Zhan flipped his sword tip down, the opponent's sword eyes stopped at his sword iron. Xian Shen seemed to be getting exhausted from using excessive force.
Xue Zhan took the opportunity by giving a powerful thrust forward, making Xian Shen's sword retreat. Xian Shen withdrew, feeling that his opponent would also not just remain in a cornered situation.
It was true that one slash was pulled, not a powerful attack and he should have been able to dodge it easily.
"Your sword will never reach me."
Xue Zhan let out a heavy breath, grinding his teeth, time was only one minute left. Xian Shen could win easily, it was more dangerous if he attacked him to a pulp.
"I'm going to get serious, the rules don't say I'm going to sanction an opponent for fatally injuring an opponent, which means I'm free to execute you as I please."
He drew his sword forward.
His eyebrows were clutched, something was flowing at his temple. Bloods.
Xian Shen touched his forehead, a thin horizontal line injured him without him noticing.
"What-what?" His breathing was stifled, he did not even realize he was injured, his eyes were staring back at Xue Zhan. There was anger in both of his eyes, angry that his face was being targeted. Xue Zhan did not say much anymore and immediately advanced. They only had less than sixty seconds to determine who won in the fight this time.
The two camps faced each other, Xian Shen drew his sword as well as Xue Zhan.
"Time's up!" shouted Tang Quan, seeing the four along with stopping the resistance. However Xian Shen and Xue Zhan did not return to their respective positions. His eyes fell on the two young men, trying to figure out what had happened.
Blood drops fell on the arena floor, the swords in their hands were both still in the same position on the sides of their respective bodies.
Xue Zhan injured Xian Shen on the shoulder, Xian Shen's attack escaped hitting Xue Zhan's chest.
Tang Quan stood in their midst, Xian Shen and Xue Zhan returned to where each of them faced each other. Waiting for the man to decide.
"662 gets 10 points, 0 points for the 664 sequence!"
Unexpectedly Ming Ming managed to win against Lao Bao Li, a bit lucky as his opponent also started to get exhausted.
Xue Zhan was still waiting for the decision for his match against Xian Shen. Tang Quan paused, observing the two participants in detail.
"Series number 665 and 666!"
That instant there was tension in the first floor arena.
"Nobody gets the points?" xian Shen said bluntly.
Tang Quan turned his head lightly towards her. "The points awarded will be calculated based on the strength of the attack given against the opponent."
"Sort number 666 gets 10 points, 665 zero points!"
Xian Shen was barely protesting, but when he looked again so far Xue Zhan's first attack had already wounded him to the point of bleeding. And the second attack. He gripped the sword hilt, his chest rising and falling as if not receiving, but there was no protest from his mouth because he knew Tang Quan did not hesitate to reduce all his points if he denied.
Xue Zhan drew a smile, not believing in being able to excel against Xian Shen. This way he has 25 points collected. Just need to find another 5 points, maybe he will be safe.
But it does not rule out the possibility that he will also still be threatened because if his points include the bottom five, even though he has qualified to pass Xue Zhan will still fall.
While thinking hard a girl with short hair as a spear user came, drawing a forced smile as she said, "I want to fight with you. You don't mind?"
Xue Zhan reached out his hand to greet Ming Ming's hand.
The next round, he would fight back against the girl who had won against Lao Bao Li, the participant with the highest point score in the current first floor arena.
But unexpectedly someone took office first, faster than Ming Ming. Xue Zhan raised his face looking at Lao Bao Li who had been in front of him as he said, "You will be my opponent."
Tang Quan raised his eyebrow next, "It looks like it will become even more interesting ...."